Ethiopic Documents: Argobba, Grammar and Dictionary

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION XI

BIBLIOGRAPrfY XVI

LIST OF ABBR]EVUTIONS XVII

PHONOLOGY.. 1

CONSONANTS 1

Observation^ on the various consonants 1

Labials 2

Dental^ 2

Laryngea/ h 3

Loss of interriiediate /i 3

Assimilation ,- 4

Total regressive assimilation 4

Partial regressive assimilation 5

Progressive asisimilation 5

Progressive and regressive assimilation 5

Dissimilation , 6

Gemination 7

Palatalization 7

Insertion of ai 8

VOWELS 9

Vocalic length 9

Meeting of vowels 9

Insertion of a semivowel w,y 10

Contraction of syllables 10

Elision of ^ 11

Clustering in phrases 1 1

NOUN 12

Article 12

Gender 14

VI CONTENTS

Plural ...- 14

Direct object 16

Indirect object 17

Complement of possession 18

ADJECTIVE 19

PRONOUN 20

Independent personal pronoun 20

Pronoun of insistence 21

Possessive suffix pronouns 21

Demonstrative pronoun and adjective 23

For near objects 23

For distant objects 25

Interrogative pronoun and adjective 25

Relative pronoun 26

Indefinite pronoun and adjective 28

Pronouns and adjectives of totality 31

* Alone, apart' 32

Distributive pronoun and adjective 32

NUMERALS 34

COPULA AND VERB OF EXISTENCE 35

Copula 35

Verbofe^tistence 38

Verb of possession 39

Thing possessed 40

VERB 43

BASIC STEM. TRIRADICALS 43

Type A: sdbbdra 43

TypeB: hedddla 44

TypeC: marrdka 45

TENSES AND MOODS 45

Perfect 45

Relative perfect 47

Negative perfect 47

Imperfect 48

CONTENTS VII

Simple imperfect 48

Compound imperfect 50

Jussive and imperative 51

Jussive 51

Imperative... 52

Gerund 52

Simple gerund 52

Compound gerund 54

VERBALS 55

Participle 55

Verbal noun 55

Summary of basic stem 56

DERIVED STEMS 57

Reduplicative 57

STEMS WITH PREFIXES 57

f^-stem 57

/a+typeC 59

a-stem 60

a5-stem 61

afO-stem 61

VERBS WITH INFTIALa 62

VERBS wrrn iNrriAL radical h 63

VERBS WFTH 2d RADICAL /i 65

Verb wdhaza 67

VERBS WFTH 3d RADICAL h 68

BIRADICALS 69

Class /aJta 69

C\2iSS sdmma 71

Class tdbba, Sd^^a 74

Verbs with initial h 76

Class qoma 77

Verb onqa, wonqa 79

Clsiss heda 80

Wttb a-weda 81

Verb hawa 82

VIII CONTENTS

Verb a/a 83

QUADRIRADICALS 84

ABBREVIATED QUADRIRADICALS 86

Class bdrdtta 86

Class ^a/a^^a 87

QUINQUERADICALS 87

VERBS WITH THE PREFIX m-, an- 88

COMPOSITE VERBS 89

OBJECT SUFHX PRONOUNS 89

Prepositional suffix pronouns 92

POSmONAL RELATIONS 93

PREPOSITIONS 93

hd Id td said andd dstd wddd aid 93

POSTPOSITIONS 95

ans9do afdgdb bdqdr ^og(g)a dar dar dards

fid fanta ga gaft gan ^ed ^emmdrdo lef mdhakkdl

mds ruS tef wdf^ 95

CLAUSES AND CONJUNCTIONS 98

Coordination 98

Contrast, restriction 98

Concession 99

Temporal clause 100

Purpose, intention 103

Cause, reason 104

Content clause 104

Alternative 105

Direct speech 107

Conditional 107

Real conditions 107

Hypothetical conditions 108

Comparative 108

Interrogative clauses 108

Direct questions 108

Indirect questions 109

Questions with a *yes' or *no' answer 110

CONTENTS IX

Affirmative and negative answer 1 10

ADVERBS Ill

Adverbs of place Ill

Adverbs of time Ill

Adverbs of cause and reason 112

Adverbs of manner 113

Adverbs of measure and quantity 113

VOCATIVE AND EXCLAMATION 114

ENCLITICS.... 115

ANALYSIS OF ARGOBBA AND AMHARIC 116

Noun 116

Pronoun 116

Copula 117

Verb 118

Derived stems 120

Verbs with initial a 120

Verbs with initial, medial, and final h 121

Class /a/:a 121

Class ^a/wma 122

Classia^^a 124

Class ^o/wa 125

Class /(e^a 125

Verb a/a 125

Quadriradicals 126

C\2iss bdrdtta 126

Class 5a/a^^a 127

Verbs with the prefix an-, an- 127

Object suffix pronouns 128

SUMMARY OF THE DISTINCTIVE FEATURES IN ARGOBBA 128

AND IN AMHARIC

CONCLUSION 130

APPENDIX 132

Are there Argobba dialects? 132

X CONTENTS

REPRINTED ARTICLES

"Examen du suppose Argobba de Seetzen et de Lefebvre" 137

(reprinted from Word, vol. 5, no. 1, 1949, pp. 46-54)

"An analysis of the Argobba vocabulary" (reprinted from 147

Journal of African Languages, vol. 5, 1966, pp. 102-1 12)

"Arabic loanwords in Argobba" (reprinted from Journal 159

of the American Oriental Society, vol. 77, no. 1, 1957, pp. 36-39)

"A preliminary description of Argobba" (reprinted from 163

Annales d'Ethiopie, vol. 3, 1959, pp. 251-273)

DICTIONARY 187

Argobba-English 188

English-Argobba 228

INDEX 253

English 254

Argobba 268

Wolf Leslau

Ethiopic Documents:
Argobba

Grammar and Dictionary

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme

Leslau, Wolf:

Ethiopic documents: Argobba ; grammar and dictionary / Wolf
Leslau. -Wiesbaden : Harrassowitz, 1997

(Aethiopistische Forschungen ; Bd, 47)

ISBN 3-447-03955-8

© Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997

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